Wits and Wagers

The game we're going to talk about today is called Wits & Wagers. It is a great family game, especially when you have ten or more people!!

The Point:
To have the most points at the end of seven questions!

Gameplay:

Divide into 3-6 teams. You can have 1-3 players on a team.

Each team gets a dry erase pen, an answer board, and two betting tokens that are the same color as their board.

Read the top question of the Question Card. (You can choose one player to read all seven questions.) Each team (or player) writes a guess on their Answer Board and places it facedown on the table. Don't worry, no one is expected to know the answer! Just guess!

Once every team/player has submitted a guess, flip the Answer Boards face-up. Sort them from smallest to largest starting with the "1" Answer Board. If two or more guesses are the same, just stack them on top of each other like in this picture.

Each team places their Betting Tokens on the answer board(s) they think is the closest without going over. You do not have to place your token on your own guess.

I have shown in this picture some examples. You may put both your tokens on one answer. You may split them. You may put yours on other people's guesses. You may put them on the "1" answer card.

After all the tokens are placed, the question card gets flipped over and the answer is read. The winning answer is the one closest to the correct answer without going over.

These are the poker chips:

One person who is designated to be the banker gives:
- One poker chip to any player that wrote a winning guess
- One poker chip to the player(s) that placed a $100 betting token on the winning guess
- Two poker chips to the player(s) that placed a $200 betting token on the winning guess

The "1" answer board pays double. So if "1" is the closest answer without going over, all bets placed on that answer board get paid double!

After all of that, each team takes back their answer board and all betting tokens, and erases their answer. Read the next question. Read seven questions in all.

When it is time to read the seventh question, players can choose to increase their bets. They can take as many poker chips as they want and place them under their betting tokens as they place their bets.

* Poker chips must be stacked underneath a betting token so there isn't any doubt who placed each bet.
* If any poker chips are bet on the wrong answer, they go back to the bank.
* You are not required to bet with poker chips.

How to Win:

The team with the most poker chips at the end of the 7th question wins!

Verdict:

This is one of the most fun games we play with our family. It's even funnier because there is just no way to know these answers. Everyone is on equal playing ground. The kids have played on their own team since they were probably 8 years old. And it's a pretty fast-paced game that doesn't take too long to play.

Great for Learning:
Estimation, Rounding, Risk-taking